Marie Harf explains: ISIL Was Too Fast For Us!

With the dissolution of the Obama administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere, President Obama is talking as fast as he can. Obama set some kind of a land speed record for double-talk in his interview with Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes last night, highlighted by Obama’s passing the buck for his misunderestimation of ISIS to the Director of National Intelligence et al. That hasn’t gone down too well, in part because it conflicts with what one could learn from following the headlines over the past year or two. Empirical reality belies Obama’s buck-passing. Moreover, those who have seen the intelligence reports, such as House Intelligence Committee member Michele Bachmann, have found Obama guilty of nonfeasance at best. Michele says that Obama is not being — what’s the word? — forthcoming.

Obama’s performance on 60 Minutes calls for some kind of explanation. Who better to provide it than State Department spokesman Marie Harf? Appearing on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, Harf explicated the presidential text: “The president said, for a long time we’ve known about the serious threat from ISIL, but everyone — us, the Iraqis, even ISIL itself probably — was surprised by how quickly earlier this summer they were really able to take territory in Iraq.”

Noah Rothman comments: “You see, even the Islamic State was shocked by their own capabilities. Th[ei]rs was a wondrous journey of self-actualization in the form of a campaign of crucifixions and beheadings.”

“They moved more quickly than anyone could have imagined,” Harf added, rewriting the history that is spelled out by Peter Foster in the Telegraph and David Martosko in the Daily Mail.